


Defrosting

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, Baking, Canon Compliant, Christmas fic, F/M, kid!Gideon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 01:25:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13179435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: Making cupcakes with Gideon is a messy business, and it falls to Belle and Rumpel to clean up their rather colourful kitchen…Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: relax, puppy, hair, cupcake, wash





	Defrosting

 

If there was one thing that Belle had learned since having a child, it was that her previous definitions of the words ‘messy’ and ‘chaos’ had been woefully inadequate. Looking down at the small explosion of frosting that had, up until a few minutes ago, been Gideon, Belle wondered if the kitchen was ever going to be the same again.

Still, they were having fun, and it had been her idea to make Christmas cupcakes with Gideon after all. At four years old, he was now of an age where the winter holidays meant something, and for Belle, that something had always included good things to eat. The nursery was having a Christmas party the next day and all the families had been asked to contribute something, so cupcakes it was. Gideon had decided that the cakes needed to be decorated in red and green and little silver balls, because they were Christmas colours. Belle had thought it best not to point out to her son his usual antipathy towards green foods. It was Christmas after all.

The cupcakes were never going to win any prizes for neatness or artistic flair, but they were sure to taste good. Gideon had been sampling the mixture and the frosting all through the baking process and had proclaimed them to be the best cupcakes that Mama had ever made, which had naturally given Belle a little swell of pride. Baking was something that she had always enjoyed despite the mess that seemed unavoidable whenever she and Gideon were in the kitchen together, and it had become their little thing, creating sweet treats whilst Rumpel was out in the shop. If push came to shove, she would even admit that she didn’t really mind the clean-up, that it was all part of the process and it wouldn’t be half as much fun if everything was clean and tidy all the time.

She surveyed Gideon again, moving the completed cupcakes out of his reach as one of his little hands reached out to grab another.

“You know, if you eat any more of those, Gid, then there won’t be any left to take tomorrow and the other children won’t get to see all the hard work you put into decorating them.”

“Just one more?” Gideon pleaded. “They’re so yummy!”

“They’re also crammed full of sugar that will keep you awake long past your bedtime,” Belle said firmly, beginning to put the cakes into a Tupperware ready to take with them the following day.

“But what if everybody at the party eats them!” Gideon exclaimed. “Then there won’t be any left for me!”

“I’m sure that there will be lots of other good things to eat at the party as well. You said that they were the best cupcakes we’ve ever made, so surely you want all your friends to be able to taste them too.”

Despite the frosting on his face allowing him to do a passable impression of a Christmas tree, Gideon’s pout was still in full force, and Belle sighed. She liked to think that Gideon did not have her wrapped around his little finger as much as he did Rumpel, but after everything that they had gone through in order to get him back, as unharmed from his ordeal as possible, she felt that their feelings towards him were entirely justified. He was the light in both their lives, the star that they both revolved around, and Belle wouldn’t have it any other way.

That didn’t mean that she was going to let Gideon have any more sugar before bedtime, though. She retrieved one of the cakes from the plastic box, seeing the way that his face lit up and then fell again when she put it on one side in cling wrap.

“There we are. If there are no cupcakes left after the party tomorrow, then you know that there’s one waiting for you here at home.”

“Can I have it now?” Gideon wheedled.

“If you have it now then you can’t have it after the party, and you can’t have the satisfaction of eating the last cupcake.”

Gideon just looked at her. He was a bit young yet to understand the concept of such things, his worldview being limited to the fact he wanted a sweet treat right now and for some mad reason, his mother wasn’t letting him have it.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s get you cleaned up before your father gets home and sees the mess we’ve made.”

In response to this, Gideon did what any self-respecting four-year-old would do in the circumstances and began to try and lick himself clean, performing some very elaborate contortions with his tongue in order to try and reach the frosting smeared on his cheeks. Belle just sighed good-naturedly and began wiping the stuff off his hands whilst he was too preoccupied with his face to notice, before shepherding him upstairs to the bathroom to give him a proper wash.

“You have red on you too, Mama,” Gideon pointed out helpfully as she scrubbed his face with a washcloth, and she glanced in the mirror to see a smear of red frosting on her cheek. She had no idea how it had got there, but as Gideon often proved, mess could very easily get from one surface to another without the two seeming to touch.

“I’ll get it in a minute,” she said. “Let’s get you defrosted first.”

By the time Gideon was finally washed and in his pyjamas, Rumpel had returned home and was quietly wiping frosting off the kitchen cupboards.

“Yes,” Belle said a little sheepishly as she came in to get a glass of milk for Gideon. “I was hoping that I could get rid of all the evidence before you came home, but the clean-up process took slightly longer than anticipated.”

Rumpel raised an eyebrow, looking around at the rather colourful kitchen. “I’m amazed that there was enough left for the cakes.”

Belle just rolled her eyes and batted his arm playfully. “You’re incorrigible. And don’t eat that solitary cupcake, it’s saved for Gideon.”

Rumpel put his hand on his heart with an expression of mock offence. “Would I do a thing like that?”

“I know your predilection for sweet treats, Rumpel.” Her tone was a warning one that brokered no nonsense. “Sometimes I’m amazed you don’t turn into a cookie, with the amount of them that you eat.”

Rumpel looked thoughtful for a moment before conceding the point.

X

“I love Gideon, but four-year-olds are exhausting.” Belle flopped down onto the sofa beside Rumpel and accepted his warm arm around her. Thanks to his efforts the kitchen was spotless once more, and with Gideon finally safely in bed and sleeping soundly – the anticipation of more cupcakes and possibly other sweets tomorrow had kept him awake for an inordinately long time – they finally had a little peace and quiet to themselves.

“You wouldn’t want another one then?” Rumpel asked, combing his fingers gently through her hair. Belle sighed.

“I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.” On the one hand, the traumas of her first pregnancy and Gideon’s first few days of life made her never want to go through the experience again, but on the other, those weeks would always be one of the darkest points of her life, and she didn’t want it to be her only memory of pregnancy and childbirth. She wanted a normal pregnancy, a full nine months of morning sickness, swollen ankles and all the related discomfort that went with it, with Rumpel by her side for the whole thing.

“There’s no rush.” It was a subject that they had discussed and skirted often, but Rumpel never pressured her into making a decision. “We could always get a dog.”

Belle gave a huff of laughter. “You’ve seen the chaos that Gideon can cause on his own; I dread to think what might happen if we introduced a puppy into the household.”

“Well, if today’s exploits are anything to go by, then there would probably be a frosting covered puppy running around wreaking havoc.” Rumpel didn’t sound to be all that concerned by the prospect, and Belle found that she wasn’t either.

“Not at Christmas, though,” she said. “If we get a puppy, we’ll get it in the middle of the year when there’s no other excitement going on. Although, in a town like this one, I don’t think that ‘no excitement’ is ever a guarantee no matter what time of the year it is.”

“Nothing major’s happened for the last four years,” Rumpel pointed out. “There’ve been the odd hiccups, but nothing world-threatening.”

“The accidental troll was two weeks ago,” Belle said mildly. “And the flying carrots were only a month before that.”

“Hiccups. Nothing that Regina and Emma couldn’t handle. And if the town can handle flying carrots then I think that they can handle us getting a puppy.”

“As long as you don’t get it in a deal and it turns out to be some kind of magical creature from a distant realm,” Belle said dryly.

“I don’t think that there are any magical creatures from distant realms in the animal shelter,” Rumpel soothed, and Belle gave a happy little sigh, closing her eyes and leaning back against him. It was easy to relax in Rumpel’s arms, and she would be quite content to doze off here, with the smell of cinnamon spiced Christmas candles and the twinkle of the fairy lights (Rumpel would be forever disappointed that they were not made from real fairies) on the tree.

The long fingers stroking her hair stopped, and Belle opened her eyes.

“What’s up?”

“I think you may have been attacked by a rogue cupcake, my love.” He held up a piece of her hair that was glued together with green frosting, and Belle sighed, realising then that she had never cleaned the smudge off her cheek either, and she glared at him.

“I’ve got frosting on my face,” she said accusingly. Rumpel just nodded, his smile impish, and Belle decided that it was time to respond in kind. Rumpel raised an eyebrow at her sudden smirk.

“Well, since I’m so covered in frosting,” Belle began, her voice almost a purr as she leaned in closer, “it looks like I’m going to have to take a nice long shower to make sure that it’s all cleaned off.”

“And would there be any chance of you wanting company in this shower?” Rumpel asked.

“Of course. I’ll need someone to tell me if I’ve missed any. And clean any frosting off particularly hard to reach places.”

“Then I would be happy to assist, my lady.”

As they made their way up the stairs, Belle reflected that she should probably make cupcakes with Gideon more often if this was how the day would end.


End file.
